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No matter what else, I have to begin this review by saying that Origins Wars (2016) is an ambitious film. For good or bad, it knows what it wants to be, which is to say a science fiction blockbuster in the spirit of Serenity (2005) or Star Wars (1977), and it does its best to be that. But only that. This is a paradox of a film that at once has enough ambition to be the best “inspired by” movie ever but not to do anything really original. That’s not a bad thing – after all, a good story is a tight story, but the problem is that watching Origin Wars (2016) is like watching a film that you’ve seen thousands of times before late at night after a long, long day.

There’s an alien planet.

Which is cool, don’t get me wrong – and, to the film’s credit, even looks pretty cool.

Let's face it: No one gave half a damn about Guardians of the Galaxy before the bastard child of the Marvel Cinematic Universe hit the multiplex in 2014. Then we all effing loved it. So what if the comic book, created in 1969, felt like Avengers-lite on the page; on screen, it achieved a near-perfect comic lift-off, thanks to cowriter-director James Gunn throwing out the rulebook invented to protect major Hollywood investments and just letting the craziness rip. You could see that anarchic spirit in the now-iconic image of Chris Pratt, in...

“The Strangers” was one of the scarier horror movies of the late-aughts, making deft use of two evergreen tropes — creepy masks and a home invasion — and earning strong returns at the box office. A sequel has been in one stage of development or another for years, most recently hell — at least until now. “The Strangers 2” has a new director in Johannes Roberts (“The Other Side of the Door”) and a script from original writer/director Bryan Bertino.

Read More: ‘The Monster’ Trailer: Zoe Kazan Stars in ‘The Strangers’ Director Bryan Bertino’s Close-Quarters Thriller

Liv Tyler starred in the 2008 original, which earned $82 million against a budget of just $9 million. She’s been attached to the sequel in the past, albeit in a reduced role, but as of now her involvement looks more uncertain. Per Entertainment Weekly, the new film’s story “centers on a family who arrives at a...

The Love Witch has set her sights on the UK. The Final Girls have teamed up with Icon Distribution and FrightFest Presents to bring Anna Biller's latest film to select UK theaters. Also in today's Horror Highlights: Kumail Nanjiani's curates a Shudder collection, the music video for Deathless Legacy's "Witches' Brew," details on The Quacky Slasher, and The Sunken Convent festival screening.

The Love Witch UK Theatrical Release Details: Press Release: "Feminist film collective The Final Girls partner with Icon Distribution and FrightFest Presents to present a UK-wide preview tour of Anna Biller’s highly anticipated new feature, The Love Witch.

Launching at The Prince Charles Cinema, London on Thursday 23rd February 2017, The Final Girls will host a series of events, Q&A’s and discussions across the UK at venues including Glasgow Film Theatre and Bristol Watershed.

The tour will conclude on Tuesday 14th March with a...

Originally slated to be released at the tail-end of last year, “Monster Trucks” has surreptitiously (and unceremoniously) slid into theaters this weekend across the country. The ominous January release date is typically a bad omen and telltale sign of a film’s quality. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule. Case in point: “Monster Trucks.” “Ice Age” director Chris Wedge’s first foray into live-action cinema is an oddly charming story that delivers on the promise of its title. There are monsters, and there are trucks. Plenty of them. Written by a squadron of screenwriters (Derek Connolly, Matthew Robinson,...

"The Furniture" our weekly series on Production Design. Here's Daniel Walber

Pan’s Labyrinth, like most of Guillermo del Toro’s films, is busy with visual imagination. There are monsters and fairies, though it’s not always certain which is which. There are dramatic colors and haunted shadows, which push even the more terrestrial sequences toward the fantastical. And there are little flourishes, not all of them thanks to the digital effects team.

In fact, physicality is among the film’s greatest strengths. Sets were built for both Ofelia’s dream world and the all-too-real Spanish Civil War narrative that frames them. Del Toro doesn’t rely on either digital backgrounds or pre-existing locations. Instead, he leans on the uncanny power of tangible design, like these Harryhausen-like models that stand in for an underground kingdom.

There are monsters underneath the beautiful surface in the first trailer for HBO’s limited series Big Little Lies, starring Oscar winners Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon.

RelatedAmerican Idiot Movie in the Works at HBO, Says Green Day Frontman

The teaser begins with idyllic shots of the ocean and happily family times before revealing a deadly plot that plagues the characters played by Kidman, Witherspoon and The Secret Life of the American Teenager‘s Shailene Woodley.

David E. Kelley penned the eight-episode adaptation of Liane Moriarty’s 2014 darkly comic novel about three mothers of kindergartners whose seemingly perfect lives...

With A24’s The Monster (read my review) now available exclusively on Directv – ahead of its theatrical/On Demand release on November 11th – the distributor has provided EW with the film’s first clip in which Ella Ballentine investigates a dead animal only to have the film’s monster rise up behind her. Originally titled There Are Monsters, the film was […]...

Bryan Bertino’s 2008 thriller The Strangers outperformed box office expectations and offered several bona fide unnerving moments, earning the slasher a small and devout following. It would be six years before we saw Bertino’s sophomore film, Mockingbird — a generic and predictable work that gave the sense Bertino had certainly taken more than a few steps backwards.

Two years on from the misfire, we’ve got our first look at Bertino’s Mockingbird follow-up, The Monster (originally titled There Are Monsters). Led by Zoe Kazan, it follows a divorced mother, Kathy (Kazan), and her daughter, Lizzy (Ella Ballentine), as they drive through the night to see her father due to an emergency. As they navigate their way through deserted country roads, a dog suddenly appears on the road and Kathy swerves to miss the canine, inadvertently crashing the car. Stranded, Kathy and Lizzy fight for their lives against a terrifying beast.